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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Chapter Eleven: Dominant Group Status Threat and the Precarity of the Highest Rung," what does Wilkerson reveal about the New Deal and the Federal Housing Administration?

2. In "Chapter Twenty-Eight: Democracy on the Ballot," what term does Wilkerson introduce for the period between Reconstruction and WWII?

3. In "Chapter Twenty-Three: Shock Troops on the Borders of Hierarchy," what solution does the flight attendant offer Wilkerson when other first class passengers seem to be making antagonistic comments about her race?

4. In "Chapter Eleven: Dominant Group Status Threat and the Precarity of the Highest Rung," what is one factor Wilkerson points to as an explanation for "dominant group status threat" in modern America?

5. In "Chapter Twenty-Two: The Stockholm Syndrome and the Survival of the Subordinate Class," what does the Black bailiff do when the white killer of a Black man begins crying about her conviction?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Chapter Twenty-Four: Cortisol, Telomeres, and the Lethality of Caste," what evidence is there that Blacks in America are under stress from the society around them?

2. In "Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Symbols of Caste," why does Wilkerson devote so much space to a discussion of Robert E. Lee's treatment of people he held as slaves?

3. In "Chapter Twenty-Five: A Change in the Script," how does Wilkerson say Civil War politics seem to still influence American voting?

4. In "Chapter Twenty-Five: A Change in the Script," why does Wilkerson say that Barack Obama's parentage helped in his election bid?

5. In "Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Symbols of Caste," why does Wilkerson quote the vice president of the Confederacy's statement about the purpose of the Confederacy?

6. In "Chapter Twelve: A Scapegoat to Bear the Sins of the World," what is the rhetorical purpose of including the anecdote about the murder of Carol DiMaiti?

7. Explain what Erich Fromm says about group narcissism, as described by Wilkerson in "Chapter Twenty: The Inevitable Narcissism of Caste."

8. In "Chapter Sixteen: Last Place Anxiety: Packed in a Flooding Basement," what idea does Wilkerson use the story of Freddie Gray to illustrate?

9. Who was Satchel Paige, and what does his life story illustrate about race in America?

10. In "Chapter Fifteen: The Urgent Necessity of a Bottom Rung," what historical discussion of the French treatment of Black American soldiers does Wilkerson relate?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay in which you evaluate the extent to which Wilkerson's argument depends on argument by analogy. Discuss what other forms of argument and support she uses, the weight that argument by analogy has in the overall text, and how effective Wilkerson's analogies are in advancing her overall thesis.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about whether the sometimes shallow coverage of historical and sociological phenomena in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is a weakness in Wilkerson's argument or is merely an effect of her attempt to appeal to a popular audience. Offer textual evidence for your claims, and be sure to cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Choose a work of fiction or poetry by an American Afrofuturist author to read. (Yes, Black Panther comics count.) Write an essay in which you explain the relationship of ideas in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents to the ideas conveyed by the work of fiction or poetry.

(see the answer keys)

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